Ashes

We had a man of God preach Sunday night, and there is something he said that I just can't seem to get out of my mind. He talked of how when a tree limb is graphed when it heals correctly that limb will be stronger than any of the other limbs on that tree. Whenever a tree is burned there is nothing left but the ashes. Those ashes are pure carbon...carbon is what the sun puts in that tree. When you are going thru the fire maybe, just maybe God is wanting the only thing left after this fire, storm, or trial is to be what He has put in you. Maybe God wants all of this other stuff, that is just stuff, to be gone so there is nothing left but Him. The process of a fire is a painful thing, in the spiritual and the natural. In the natural, I have never been thru a fire, but I do know that there is loss. Loss of those things from the past; loss of everyday things that we take for granted. In the spiritual, we tend to hold on to the past, things that we have been forgiven for, things that God has long ago forgotten. The battle of the flesh is a constant battle. Lord, help me to be ashes...nothing left of me but what You put in me.